Pages

Monday, September 5, 2011

Labour Day Leftovers: Adam Lind and Mike McCoy's Walk Rates

Here's a little nugget of knowledge for you to digest before the Blue Jays take on the Red Sox this afternoon. I was combing through some stats during Friday's Blue Jays/Yankees liveblog, and found some rather interesting news.

I don't know if this reflects more poorly on Adam Lind's season, or better on Mike McCoy (or Mikey Mick as he has been affectionately coined by Stoeten and Drew), but here goes:

Adam Lind has 28 walks this season.Mike McCoy has 20 walks this season.

Here's the caveat: Adam Lind has coaxed 28 walks in nearly a season's worth of plate appearances, 480 to be exact. While Mike McCoy is only 8 walks away, he's done so in only 139 plate appearances; and McCoy has 341 less PA's than Lind does.

If you break it down, that means Adam Lind is drawing a walk every 17.14 plate appearances. Mike McCoy is taking a base on balls every 6.95 plate appearances.

Again, I'm not positive whether this looks worse on Adam Lind or if it further proves Mike McCoy's Slap Chop-like versatility, but it's a very sobering statistic that McCoy nearly has as many walks as Lind.

This is truly a testament to our need for Prince fielder or anyone else to bat clean up. My hope is we sign Prince and have Lind and Prince alternate between DH and 1B. EE is likely out but that's the price I'm willing to pay to get a career 400 OBP into this lineup. Add on the fact that he's only 28 and that losing EE moves Lawrie into the 5 hole.

King_Cat, McCoy is very underrated. I'm not crazy about him batting leadoff, but he certainly has the ability to draw the walk at any given moment. He could prove to be even more useful than the token call up/send up in the years to come!

Anon, after Lind's recent slide, it's very evident the Blue Jays lack a 1-2 punch to go with Bautista. Fielder or Pujols would definitely fill that requirement, and EE is so streaky that I wouldn't count on him being effective in the cleanup spot.

Chill, EE was certainly be the cheaper of the two options, but I'm afraid that he might come back down to earth again next season and the Blue Jays will be in the same position that they were at the beginning of the year with him.

At least with Lind, we pretty much know what to expect from him (albeit, nothing spectacular unfortunately).

How to Contact the Blue Jay Hunter

About the Blue Jay Hunter

The Blue Jay Hunter is a blog about the Toronto Blue Jays, which takes a look at the team under the microscope. Mixed in with just a hint of humour, and a shred of dignity. I also have an affinity for baseball moustaches.